High School students living in Buffalo Head Prairie will have a short commute to high school in a couple of years. The province announced that an addition will be added to Blue Hills Community School. This will allow the school to accommodate up to 200 students, including a high school. The current school is kindergarten grade nine and can hold 162 students.
“This is going to allow kids to complete high school in Blue Hills without having to ride a bus 108 minutes one way,” said Fort Vermillion School Division Superintendent, Mike McMann. “It’s the fastest growing population in the county (MacKenzie). It’s a great opportunity for those students to spend more time with family and friends rather than several hours on a bus every day. It’s a real deterrent when you have to ride the bus that long, and then sit through school.
Infrastructure Alberta was unable to confirm the cost of the upgrade, but a ministry spokesperson said a K-12 school can cost anywhere between $40 million to $80 million. “Each school is unique, but we have benchmarks – or averages – on how much these projects typically cost,” mentioned Diane Carter, Press Secretary for Infrastructure Minister Prasad Panda. “That (the final cost) is something we do when we do the project scoping. Especially in the design stage, we take a look at what is going on behind the walls and we figure out what problems are there. If you have ever renovated your house, you would have an idea.”
McMann adds the school division hopes to break ground on the Blue Hills School addition next spring, which the hope of a grand opening by the fall of 2020.
– Kenny Trenton, Trending 55 Newsroom
